Orzammar's Version of Practicality
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age.
Lady Delala Dace was well aware of how people saw her. She was practically the definition of Orzammar practicality but that was rarely the kind of thing that earned one friends. It wasn't like she particularly cared, either. She had one goal in life and that was to increase House Dace's standing (both in prestige and in wealth) by whatever means possible whether that meant seeking to restore the castes of the sun-touched or turning her back on an ancient alliance with the longest-ruling royal family Orzammar had ever seen for some land and the chance to become even more important advisors to a weak King (though with King Endrin still languishing away on his death bed that was hardly public knowledge yet).
Delala could be pleasant when she so chose although she usually reserved that for members of her own House – the important ones – or her fellow deshyrs. Manners were the sign of good breeding, after all, and it wouldn't do for those of comparable significance to find hers lacking. Those beneath her notice, of course, knew it and so there was no point in pretending to care about them in the slightest. Not many did and only the most contentious deshyr around, Lord Helmi, actually seemed to care although why he bothered was beyond her. Those high up in other powerful families like the Helmis or the Aeducans but did not happen to be the deshyr or the head of House were also worthy of consideration. Ancestors knew a misplaced snub could prove disastrous if not outright fatal. It might be easier and less complicated to be equally polite to everyone of noble caste but that would be seen as a weakness as it implied a lack of ability to distinguish between the ranks. One always had to know just where they stood in comparison to those that they spoke to.
A harder category to pin down as far as her treatment of them was concerned would be the ones that, while not quite deshyr or Dace levels of importance, were still aiding her or her House (which really was the same when one got right down to it). A warrior, for instance, whose family had long since pledged themselves to House Dace or a trusted and discrete messenger. Certainly a modicum of respect had to be afforded but not overly so and the lesser being had to always remember their place. Without everyone knowing exactly where that was, the entire social hierarchy of Orzammar might collapse. While that may have amused the likes of Lord Helmi, some people had worked hard to keep their position at the top and had come from a long line of people who had done the same and as such would prefer not to watch their world come crashing down around them.
All of this was the result of hours of careful contemplation and being as logical as she knew how to be. She had always been taught that the most important thing was the advancement of her House and, as one of only eighty deshyrs and the daughter of the head of House Dace, much of that task would fall to her. As anyone with even a passing knowledge of Orzammar politics and an ounce of competence could attest to, holding onto power was almost harder to do than attaining it and so nearly every waking moment Delala had was dedicated to both keeping the power that she already had and to try and take more.
Yes, take. There was only so much power to be had, after all, so every little bit gained was a loss for someone else. If she wanted power that another had then she had to be better than they were and to prove it. As if that weren't enough, there were always jealous mutterings from her own house to contend with. Sure, they were pleased at her many successes but greatness always engendered envy and, Orzammar being what it was, plots to replace her. They hadn't succeeded yet and if she had her way then they never would. Delala liked having power and she liked House Dace consistently gaining more and she would use anything and anyone, even her own children, to continue the hard-fought path to the top. She was hardly alone in that either. Only a fool – and thus, half of Orzammar – would actually believe Bhelen Aeducan's version of how he had come to be the sole Aeducan heir but nothing could be proven and so the official story was the one they all accepted.
It was tradition to only acknowledge things that legally happened or existed and Delala followed that…when it suited her. Tradition also dictated that those that had headed to the Surface be forgotten and while the initial vote had fallen through in the wake of all the excitement surrounding the royal family's power squabbles, Ronus had hardly given that up and he was making more headway than she'd thought he would. Tradition dictated that that Surface traders should be tolerated as an unpleasant necessity and nothing more but trading with them often – not always such as the case with Ronus' bust of the previous year – proved extremely lucrative. Tradition dictated that the casteless did not exist and were to be ignored suitably, noble hunters were becoming more and more acceptable as each generation proved a little smaller than the previous one. Delala couldn't approve of such things and felt part of it was simply an inability for the men who employed the noble hunter's to control themselves. Just the same, the value of the extra swords such affairs produced could not be denied.
Delala's overwhelming devotion to the business of her house had many advantages and really only one thing that could be considered a disadvantage: it didn't win her many friends. Making it clear that compassion and kindness were a distant second to power and prestige meant that many considered her to be a bitch. Usually it didn't bother her as friendships would add a whole new complication to her life as she had to worry about what she could trust them with or what aid she would be expected to offer that didn't benefit her or House Dace but sometimes, when she discovered yet another plot to displace he, she wished that if she misstepped and did lose that there would be people there to defend her. While it hadn't actually done any good for the exiled princess herself, Aunn still had people jumping to attack Bhelen on her behalf and not all of it was to try and take the Aeducans out of power, either. Lord Harrowmont, in particular, was always quick to defend her.
Such moments of weakness were only dwarven and Delala supposed that they were tolerable as long as she never said or did anything to allow others to realize that the weakness was there. Once people knew you had a weakness, they would stop at nothing to exploit it and, by the Stone, a useless desire to have a little more genuineness in her life was not what was going to bring her down.
So yes, Lady Delala Dace was well aware of how people saw her but in the end it didn't matter because she was winning.
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